By Mary Vee
During family travels this last week, we stopped in a small town in the Midwest with time to kill.
I simply had to check out the library.
No disappointment there.
This small town had computers lined up on tables against every walls, and other tables in the middle of the rooms with outlets for the laptop/other techno gadget use. Amazing and well designed. Rows of bookshelves filled in the space in between.
Around the corner from the main room, I found the reason for this post.
The children's section filled one third of the library. Bright, inviting, easy to find anything.
Lots of kid high bookshelves stuffed with books.
A banquet length table filled with computers and little people chairs had been placed next to the aisle. In the last seat, a little boy with glasses pointed to a computer screen and giggled. I'm not sure what game he played, but he sure liked it.
He didn't sit there alone. Next to him a man, presumably his father, kneeled with one leg resting on the floor, the other propped close to the boy's chair. He wrapped his left arm around the top of the boy's chair and held a cell phone with his right.
The man wore a friendly smile as he spoke on his cell. He looked from the boy's computer screen to the boy's face all the while continuing his conversation. Fully engaged in the phone conversation, yet fully engaged with his son.
I wondered who he was speaking to. Was it Mom? A business call?
To me this struck a modern Norman Rockwell pose. Or a modern Andy of Mayberry setting. And while some may think the cell phone was an intrusion or distraction, I say, in this case, the man was by his son's side...and that counted for a lot.
What do you think?
photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net
I simply had to check out the library.
No disappointment there.
This small town had computers lined up on tables against every walls, and other tables in the middle of the rooms with outlets for the laptop/other techno gadget use. Amazing and well designed. Rows of bookshelves filled in the space in between.
Around the corner from the main room, I found the reason for this post.
The children's section filled one third of the library. Bright, inviting, easy to find anything.
Lots of kid high bookshelves stuffed with books.
A banquet length table filled with computers and little people chairs had been placed next to the aisle. In the last seat, a little boy with glasses pointed to a computer screen and giggled. I'm not sure what game he played, but he sure liked it.
He didn't sit there alone. Next to him a man, presumably his father, kneeled with one leg resting on the floor, the other propped close to the boy's chair. He wrapped his left arm around the top of the boy's chair and held a cell phone with his right.
The man wore a friendly smile as he spoke on his cell. He looked from the boy's computer screen to the boy's face all the while continuing his conversation. Fully engaged in the phone conversation, yet fully engaged with his son.
I wondered who he was speaking to. Was it Mom? A business call?
To me this struck a modern Norman Rockwell pose. Or a modern Andy of Mayberry setting. And while some may think the cell phone was an intrusion or distraction, I say, in this case, the man was by his son's side...and that counted for a lot.
What do you think?
photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net
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